The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Baghdad:#1: A roadside bomb targeted the house of a director general in the culture and media ministry in south Baghdad, Tuesday, causing only material damages.

#2: update Two magnetic bombs targeted two cars belonging to employees in the finance ministry, late Monday, killing one of the employees and injuring two civilian passers by.

Amarra:#1: An improvised explosive device went off targeting a U.S. convoy in northern Amara, without causing casualties, a deputy police chief said on Wednesday. “The bomb exploded late Tuesday (March 29), targeting a U.S. convoy in Kamiet district near a power station, northern Amara, without leaving casualties,” Colonel Sadeq Abdulazeem told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Kirkuk:#1: One citizen was killed on Tuesday by gunmen in southern Kirkuk, according to a senior police officer. “Unknonwn gunmen opened fire on Tuesday (March 30) on a citizen inside his store in al-Nsr neighborhood in southern Kirkuk,” Brigadier Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that he died before carrying him to the hospital.

#2: One gunman was wounded on Wednesday by policemen in central Kirkuk, according to a police source. “A joint patrol of U.S. forces and Iraqi police came this morning under an armed attack by a thermal bomb near the Kirkuk public hospital in central Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The forces opened fire on the gunmen, injuring one of them, while the rest of them fled to unknown place,” he added.

Mosul:#1: Two civilians were killed on Tuesday by gunmen in eastern Mosul, a police source said. “Armed men shot and killed two young men in al-Jamasa region in eastern Mosul and fled to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One civilian was wounded on Tuesday by a roadside bomb explosion in central Mosul, according to a security source. “The bomb went off targeting a police vehicle patrol in al-Kourniesh street, central Mosul, injuring a passing civilian, who was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Two Iraqi police officers were killed by an explosive device targeting their patrol unit in the northern city of Mosul, security forces said Wednesday. The police patrol was moving through the area of New Mosul, in the western part of the city, when the device exploded, security sources told the German Press Agency dpa.

#4: A man and a woman were wounded on Wednesday in a hand grenade explosion in central Mosul, a security source said. “A gunman threw a hand grenade on a police vehicle patrol in Khaled bin Walied street, central Mosul, injuring the two persons,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Tal Afar:#1: Two persons were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in Talafar on Tuesday.“One of the casualties is a woman,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Police found the corpse of an unknown civilian shot in the head in Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad

Al Anbar Prv:#1: An improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday targeting a freight train in western Anbar, injuring the driver and two workers, according to a police source. “The bomb, planted on the rail between Akashat city and the Phosphate factory in western Anbar, exploded while a freight train was passing, injuring three civilians, including the driver and two of the train’s workers, one of them who remains in critical condition,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: A bomb concealed on a bicycle killed at least eight people Wednesday in southern Afghanistan. The bomb went off in the Nahr-e-Sarraj district just north of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, police said. It exploded near people who gathered to receive free vegetable seeds provided by the British government as part of a program to encourage them not to plant opium poppy, provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said. NATO said more than 35 civilians were wounded in the blast, and its forces were helping Afghan authorities control the scene.

#2: In the Khyber tribal district that straddles NATO supply lines, Pakistan's military said 80 to 100 militants armed with guns, rockets and suicide vehicles attacked a paramilitary camp, sparking clashes that killed six soldiers. Troops said they repelled the militants from storming the paramilitary Frontier Corps camp in the lawless northwest district. Around 100 militants launched an attack on the camp in Jansi near Bara town around 2:00 am (2100 GMT), said local administration chief Shafirullah Wazir. "Security forces effectively responded and repulsed the attack. During an exchange of fire with security forces, about 20 terrorists were killed and more than 30 were injured," the military said. Six security force personnel were killed and 15 others wounded, while vehicles rigged up with explosives were destroyed.

#3: Unmanned US aircraft fired three missiles that destroyed a compound in the North Waziristan, a stronghold of Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda affiliates, killing six suspected militants, Pakistani security officials said. The missiles struck a compound owned by Zamir Khan, a local tribesman, in the village of Tapi, about 20 kilometres (13 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, security officials said.

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comments:

Anonymous
said...

our war and occupation of Iraq did not just destroy the country, it also left a legacy of cancer and birth defects. And in Iraq, if you are lucky to be born okay, your growth will be stunted from this evil war and occupation.

This further wrinkle in the Iraqi election outcome underlines how unwise is the rush among American pundits, mainly on the political Right, to declare the election a vindication of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Hey, warmongers: get it through your heads. You went to war on the grounds that Iraq was a grave danger to the US and might even nuke us. That was untrue and ridiculous. You don't get any mulligans in the invasion game.

Nothing would vindicate Bush save proof that Saddam Hussein's regime was really dangerous to the US. It wasn't. It had bupkes in the way of WMD. Iraqis will eventually live normal lives and get rich. That won't vindicate Bush either. He lied to us repeatedly and illegally invaded another country, contravening the UN charter and a whole slew of international and even domestic US laws.

There is no vindication.

But the unseemly backstabbing and maneuvering of fundamentalists, ex-Baathists, Iranian double agents and CIA assets in Iraq now is certainly not it.